Berkley

Tomatoes Extraordinaire, Inc., doing business as Specialty Produce (Specialty), sued Wellington, Inc., doing business as Jack’s La Jolla (Jack’s), and its controlling officer, William J. Berkley, for failure to pay outstanding invoices for produce supplied by Specialty to Jack’s. After a court trial, Berkley was found personally liable for Specialty’s damages. This personal liability was based on the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, 1930 (PACA; 7 U.S.C. § 499a et seq.), which regulates qualifying transactions in the produce industry.

On appeal, Berkley raises an issue of statutory interpretation, arguing that Specialty did not establish that Jack’s was a produce “dealer” within the meaning of PACA to support the imposition of personal liability permitted under PACA. We agree, and reverse the judgment.

BACKGROUND

Specialty, a produce seller, incurred damages when Jack’s failed to pay for produce it received from Specialty, and then went out of business. 1 Specialty filed an action against Jack’s, as well as against Berkley in his individual capacity, to recover the monies owed for the produce. Specialty alleged that Berkley was personally liable for Jack’s debts…